Well this might make us act a bit earlier than we were thinking. Genine's Dad called me up to tell me that he's got someone that will pay one entry fee for the Tango.
So where is everyone regarding the Tango? Who is going planning on going?
Shawn, Craig, Jim, Casey, Todd, Genine and anyone else I'm aware of I guess it's time to get some ideas together.
Here are my ideas. I'm going to go with the premise of there being 4 of us.
1) Two, two man relay teams. Jim/Shawn, Matt/Craig. I'm guessing you can pick the events each person would take. Not sure we'd be competitive but would be a challenge. To be competitive we might need to add a couple people but we might be able to be the core of 2 teams?
2) Relay like last year. Each of us with 2 events. If we did this we should definitely choose by our strengths and see if we could actually be competitive. I'm also willing to add people to improve the team if we think we are close to placing.
Just some thoughts. Shawn's been talking about full tango. I'd be willing to give it a shot as long as I have pain killers ready for the next day :-)
What do you think?
10 comments:
Hey, that's cool. I'll throw my ideas in. Here's what I'm thinking. It's true that I want to increase my level of engagement with this event. I was really hoping to be able to handle the whole thing by August, but I'll tell you what. If we wanted to break it out like you mentioned, and Jim and Craig are willing to go for it, I would definitely consider that. That would allow us each to do 4 pieces of the race, which would be cool for me, as it would double my participation from last year, and spare me from the dreaded half marathon at the outset. If I were looking for running excitement, I still get the orienteering, which is basically a 6 mile run. That's still pretty far for me right now. Jim would be thinking he got a lame partner on this section. He's been sitting around for 3 hours getting all freshened up, waiting for me to come in from the bike and swim and now I have to run 6 miles through the woods with this speed demon? Yet despite cutting our team in half, I think we might actually be more competitive than last year, given our skill increase and event experience. We haven't heard from Craig recently about his thoughts on this, but it might be fun to have each other in competition like that. Give us someone to chase.
I am not too excited about repeating what we did last year, even though we might be more competitive and it was fun. I want to work harder. I felt like I had a lot more energy to burn that day. Plus I want to push myself. As a consequence, I have been gunning for the Tango Team or going solo, even though the run might royally blow for me. I was hoping that in preparing for the run, I would lose enough weight that it would no longer be so daunting. But when you break it down, the Tango is a lot of running. And since that is my least favorite part of the race, I would be amenable to doing this if everyone else were.
Shawn I thought you wanted a challenge!!
You do the Half Marathon to Start, then right to the Mtn. Bike.
Jim is the obvious choice for the swim, again because he loves the challenge.
Then you guys will do the orienteering but can only look at the map before you start the run. You can't take it with you.
Jim can do the 4.5 mile road run, but he has to wear his bike shoes.
For the canoe, each of you get to pick one side of the canoe to paddle on. You can only switch sides by going backwards.
Did I miss anything?
Yes, I think I should carry my bike for the orienteering section, and Jim should not be allowed to remove his flippers after the swim.
For the canoe, what's all this talk of paddles? Who needs 'em? We have hands!
And we know the bike course can be completed with flat tires, so I should simply start like that to avoid any unfair advantage over everyone else.
Actually, now that I think of it, Jim should probably tow my bike in the swim too, so I don't have to ride it back around. And maybe we should complete the orienteering section naked (except for flippers) to help us more intimately experience the outdoors. "Watch out for this tree limb!" Whack! Oooooooh, that hurts.
Lastly, Jim should also probably pull the canoe from the lake over to the river on the second run, because our support team is all Cerras and they might have some other team to deal with.
The challenge is great if you do the whole tango or a two man relay.
I looked at last years times. If, I do what I think is my strength (Bike, Orienteer, 4.5 mile run, & canoe) then the my total time (minus 1hr for flats and riding rims)I will have a total time exercising of 5.8 hrs, my partner would be 6.8 hrs. Total Tango time 9.2 hrs. You can see how my strength is doing less.
I then said lets see what we could do if we improved our times from last year. Or course I would improve some and only have 5.004 hrs exercising (once again playing to my strengths), and my partner 6.25 hrs. With a total time of 8.24 hrs.
So, if two of us can get 8:15, maybe four can be competitive of course I am probably being optimistic.
What is competitive. Last years third place team was 7:54. I am sure I don't want to do the whole Tango, but a two man relay is good for me, as long as I do the bike. A four man team is good also, I do not have the same desires Shawn does to work harder. From earlier in the paragraph I want to be doing less, mostly time.
I am confused is it the other side backwards looking at me or from me?
"I am confused is it the other side backwards looking at me or from me?"
I should have said you choose to paddle on the RT 59 side of the canoe, or the Hemlock Side of the river.
Does that clarify?
So, if we break into two teams, which one gets the sponsor?
I think I present the biggest billboard space on my shirt.
There was one other two-person relay last year, the Heplers. They finished 51 minutes ahead of us. If they do it again, they might be good competition. They had a pretty slow swim, but were respectable everywhere else. Identical time on the Orienteering.
Somehow I don't see us being podium-worthy unless we replace at least three of us, assuming Jim is the 4th. I'm doing it for fun and challenge, not to win a prize. If we happen to do well enough to make it to the 3rd step, that's awesome, but unexpected. I want to try to win, but don't expect to be able to. In other words, I don't want to slack, or take it easy. I want to go all-out the whole time.
Using Craig's technique, and listing me as the biker, swimmer, orienteerer and canoeist, I will be doing 90 minutes on the bike, shooting for 70 minutes in the swim, 90 minutes in the woods, and the canoe is an easy 90 minutes, unless we're locked in mortal combat with some other team nearby (Matt and Craig, grrr!). That gives me 5:40 of effort, four hours and ten minutes of which is consecutive. Definitely qualifies as a challenge for an old fat guy such as myself. That will be more work than any of the Olympic triathlons we do (I hope), so I suppose I could be satisfied.
What does sponsor mean? Shawn has an argument for Sponsor by being the biggest back. The problem is the only people seeing the sponsorship is the people passing him in the woods on the orienteering run. Except Jim of course who will be constantly running back and forth from the check points to let Shawn know how fae he is from them. That shot was really uncalled for, not on Jim, on Shawn.
I don't think advertising has anything to do with it. They are just sponsoring a team of people to bring people like us into the area for the weekend to spend money in Warren.
So if we end up as 2 teams, I say we split whatever the remaining costs are between all of us. So even if only one team is sponsored it ends up about half price for all of us. See what I'm doing there?
Actually, I believe the shot you took was called for. He had to rub more salt into the wound by bringing the flat tire bike rides into the mix.
Speaking of which, I expect to hear reports about ebay deals on Cyclocross bikes soon. Or Craig's modification of his old wheels into something he can make work this year on that ride.
No, no, Craig. You forget. Since Jim will put us close to the front by the first transition when I start the bike, all those other bikers passing me will get to read the ads too.
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